5 best tips to create a hotel loyalty program

Today, we are discussing some points that can really help you to create a hotel loyalty program.

We all know how it has become difficult to acquire direct bookings. It is a serious fight with OTAs. So when we get one then we want that customer to book from us again.

And that is why loyalty programs come handy. They are very effective in growing and sustaining market share.

One myth that we have about loyalty programs is that they are very costly. But this is not true.

Marketers think that huge investment will go into the loyalty programs and that too without a guarantee to success.

It is a fact that gaining a new customer is more costly than retaining a customer. Your maximum bookings should come from your existing customers.

So let us check out some tips that can help you to create a hotel loyalty program.

First thing first, you need to understand what’s in it for you. So before you roll out the loyalty program you need to understand how you will draw out your profits.

Obviously, we cannot shoot in the dark in this vicious competition. We need a target. So first make a plan that how you are going to make profits from the loyalty program.

You will have to allot a budget for the campaign and how it will be spent.  Then what ROI to expect.

As we already know that retaining a customer is costs less than earning a new customer. But that does not mean that we do not make efforts to gain new customers.

So we have to design our loyalty program in such a way that it is flashy to everyone. Our loyalty program will be a reason for travelers to book from and then keep booking from us.

After drawing out your benefits time to draw out customer benefits.

With loyalty programs, you are trying to attract guests to your hotel. You want them to book your hotel so give them a proper reason for it.

You need to justify their decision choosing you. Then you also have to motivate them to spend more. And that is why you should go for a tier-based loyalty program.

In a tier-based program, a user will get more benefits if he spends more. So this will motivate guests to spend more.

Many times we notice that getting a benefit from a loyalty program becomes very difficult. Or sometimes the conditions are so hard that a customer has to spend a lot to get small benefits.

You have to refrain from such an approach. This will harm you more than you thought.

The user will first see your campaign, gets allured to it and when he is able to sign up due to over complex process then he will be disappointed.

He will be disappointed with your hotel brand. He will not prefer to even check out your hotel as an option.

So your loyalty program will be a source of negative marketing for your hotel.

Here I mean that you have to cover as many services and products as you can. You do not have to make the program very location-specific or hotel specific.

If you are a hotel chain then you will have to make sure that the loyalty program applies to the booking of any of your hotels.

And if you are a marketplace then you have to make sure that the user gets benefits on the purchase of any of the service or hotel of your marketplace.

You can also partner with other services and include their services in your program. For example, if you partner with a transportation service then you can offer your guest a free airport pickup when he books your hotel.

Using a reward point system in a loyalty program is very useful. In this system, you basically have do not offer discounts, freebies or upgrades directly instead you offer points.

A user earns some points on his bookings and then he can redeem those points for a discount or upgrade.

The point system is good for user experience. It puts the user in the driving seat. The user can earn points and decide to spend them whenever he wants.

So it is not mandatory for him to enjoy the loyalty benefits on a certain trip, he has the option to choose.

Loyalty points are one of the primary weapons used by hotels to gain direct bookings.

Loyalty Programmes have probably become one of the most potent marketing strategies for almost every business.

Tourism Industry is becoming more and more competitive day by day because of its potential and new entries and that is why businesses in this sector are launching loyalty programs in high numbers

So these were some of the tips that you can use to create a hotel loyalty program.

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Thanks for the read!!!